


Mute Swan

by Keetajet



Series: Dark Bat Boys [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Nightwing (Comics), Under the Red Hood
Genre: Barbara Gordon is Oracle, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Breeding, Bruce Wayne is Batman, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Brutality, Damian Wayne is Robin, Dehumanization, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Dick Grayson is a Talon, Dimension Travel, F/M, Genderbending, Healing, Horror, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Muteness, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Possessive Behavior, Precognition, Suspense, Tim Drake is Oracle, Tim Drake is Red Robin, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:01:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23241418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keetajet/pseuds/Keetajet
Summary: Mia Rodriguez lives in a world where Richard Grayson had disappeared soon after the death of the Flying Graysons, Bruce Wayne died too young after coming back from his 10 year trip, and Red Hood was on a bloody warpath to keep his iron control over Gotham crime.The world is shit but she's surviving it well enough.Until she got a stalker that she couldn't shake loose.
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Original Female Character(s), Jason Todd & Original Female Character(s), Tim Drake & Original Female Character(s)
Series: Dark Bat Boys [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1653673
Comments: 11
Kudos: 43





	1. Mia Rodriguez

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! So this is the first chapter of of the second story a non-connected series of Dark Bat Boys. 
> 
> First chapter will start in an alternate reality where a lot of shit just went wrong. It's not Flash Point horrible or Batman Who Laughs horrible, but still pretty damn bad. And since this is an alternate reality or different dimension, there are a lot of changes, such as Red Hood being a full on Crime Boss, Bruce Wayne being dead, etc. It'll take place in this reality for a few chapters before she gets to the 'Normal Dimension' where Bruce Wayne is Batman with a whole gaggle of Robin and ex-Robins.

“-riguez. Ms. Rodriguez. Ms. Rodriguez!”

Mia jolted from her distracted thoughts to see her core math professor staring at her with an unimpressed frown.

“You realized that you've been humming to yourself for the past 5 minutes?” 

Mia gave him a sheepish grin, “Sorry Mr. Dirk.” 

“Am I also correct that you have not been paying attention to the formula being written, right?” She looked up at the white board and saw a whole two boards worth of long numbers and she hadn’t written a single bit down.

Shit.

Her face told him enough and he sighed, “Whatever is going on through your head, please put it under lock and key. I’m going to show how to do the next formula. So ask for your partner on how to do this one, alright?” Mia nodded, a contrite look on her face. 

None of her classmates laughed or giggled, but she did feel their slightly judge-y stare. Some were a bit curious as well but the looks soon turned away to pay attention to class. She sighed and proceeded to continue on with listening to the lecture.

She’ll figure it out later.

Sounds of pencil scratching and the professor droning on continued on until the lecture ended at 7 am. From there, she took the bus to the Gotham Library to work on her homework in between placing books back to their correct places on the shelf. It was uneventful.

So why did she feel like something bad was going to happen to her? Not to other people, but to her specifically? And usually the feeling of danger has some clue of _when_ it was going to happen, but this one was just a constant low buzz of _danger_

If she could talk to her gut instinct, she would ask, “Where and what?”

_Don’t know. Just danger._

She debated on whether or not she should go to her ballet lesson tonight or if she should just go home to snuggle with her boyfriend. On one hand, the feeling of danger had been building steadily over the last few days. To the point where she would take detours in order to throw off the feeling of danger.

On the other hand, she had worked hard for years to be excellent in ballet. Her goal was to actually land a role in Black Swan and she needed to work extra hard to get the spot. A day missed could make or break her chance.

This feeling….she had it multiple times in her life. And at 24 years old, she had listened to all but one warning by trusting her gut instinct and all but one event ended up saving her life and the life of her friends and family.

The first and only time she did not listen to her danger sense was when she was 9 years old and she saw her friend’s parent’s fall to their death at a traveling circus show.

The last time she saw her friend that she made during that summer was when she hugged his crying form.

He disappeared entirely after that, and no matter what she could do with her limited resources as a child in a middle to low income family, she could never find him again. Not even her younger best friend now could find him.

The next time after that, she always listened to her gut feeling and she was glad that she had, since the next time that her gut instinct screamed at her, she and her parents nearly died in a fire.

Then she saved them from going into that _specific_ bank on a certain day which ended up having a fatal hostage situation.

Soon enough, her parents stopped questioning her gut instinct. Sometimes it became an inconvenience to drive an alternate route that would make her late to elementary then to middle school. By the time she reached high school, she took her own bus or cab to school. Sometimes she would take an earlier stop and walk the rest of the way in a different route only to hear a small side story in the newspaper column of a mugging turned into homicide in the location that she would have normally walked by.

If she didn’t know better, she would say that her danger sense, her gut instinct, is telling her that she has a stalker with dangerous intentions following her from a distance.

By the time 5 pm rolled in, she clocked out, “Bye Claire! I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

“Don’t break your toe.” Clair responded, not looking up from reading her book from the check in center. Mia stuck her tongue out. “I can see that.” Claire droned monotonously, flipping the page of her book.

Mia chuckled and walked out into the busy night, darkness descending on Gotham due to the dark clouds that threaten to rain. The sun had already set about 15 minutes ago.

She took the bus line that would have taken her to the slightly run down dance studio, but about half way towards her new designation, she felt sick to her stomach with the feeling of danger getting sharper and sharper.

Abruptly she got off the bus and rushed to the nearest building, shouldering her way through to sneak past the “Staff Only” door and took a deep breath.

So that answers that. She can’t go to her practice tonight.

Instead she took the back exit, workers that she might have come across didn’t really seem to have noticed her since they were too busy with cooking up food and yelling at each other.

Instead of coming home to her boyfriend, she decided to stay at her friend's apartment 20 minutes south of Gotham Library, in a much nicer and cleaner area. Hoping into another room that is devoid of human life in the same building, she brought up her phone and dialed her friend’s number.

“Hey Mia.” A voice of an older female teen answered.

“Hey Tiff. Are you busy right now?” Mia asked, moving to the exit at the back of the restaurant and into another building.

“Uh oh. You have that voice. Is your spidey sense tingling again?” Tiff asked, not entirely too worried, just a little concerned.

“Tiffany Drake, seriously, it’s not spidey sense.” Mia scolded her, but there was a small undercurrent of amusement as she waited for her path to the next building to clear, “For one, it’s not like a tingle. And I don’t have the reflex or the strength of Spider-Man.”

“Spidey sense sounds so much cooler than a high grade selective precognition.” Tiff argued, “Besides, you like Spider-Man comics ever since I showed it to you. You can sense security, eyes, danger, and wrongness. It’s spidey sense.” 

“I can’t do that, ‘cause otherwise I would have Marvel Entertainment after my ass for copyright infringement.” Mia could hear a heavy eye roll on the other side of the call.

_Now._

“So are you busy?” Mia asked again, moving with practiced calm to the next building and sneaking inside. The more she moved, the less her nausea of severe danger roiled in her stomach.

“No. Being an emancipated minor has its huge perks. I get to have a place of my own, my own car, own a small time computer security business, and an older friend who tolerates my geekiness. All without adult supervision.” 

“I love your geekiness,” Mia assured her, moving again, “Never change. So I need a pick up at our third favorite spot.” She told her and Tiff immediately knew what she was talking about, “See ya soon, don’t let the wrackspurts buzz near your ear.” _Be careful, someone is following me._ Tiff heard.

She hung up and sent a text to her boyfriend Joshua, ‘ _nt ging hm tnig c u tmrw_ ’

She smiled when he sent a text back with a thumbs up and several hearts emoji.

She’s glad that he tolerates her ‘paranoia’.

30 minutes later a red C-Class Mercedes Benz casually parked in front of the coffee shop just as Mia finished ordering coffee for Tiff and a vanilla frappe for herself. A young woman stepped out who looked contrasting to the nice car in a grungy red zip up hoodie over a black t-shirt with a metal unicorn with a rainbow beam shooting out of its horn. Her hair looked like it had seen better days. Looking like she just rolled out of her bed.

Silently Mia approached the table where the last Drake decided to take up residence and they waited for their order to be called. Mia turned to Tiff, “So how’s work going?” 

“Oh, nothing much. Just trying really hard to fix the bug in the system in the security. It’s been keeping me up all night.” Translation, she was hacking her way through top cooperation and sabotaging them.

Life in Gotham got worse after the death of Martha and Thomas Wayne. The son, Bruce Wayne disappeared for almost a decade then came back for only several years before being murdered from a poisoned blade. Alfred Pennyworth was charged with murder where he was then killed in Blackgate Penitentiary. 

Tiffany Drake, during one of their stay overs, swore up and down that the murder was staged and the family butler was entirely innocent.

Since the death of the entire Wayne family with no heirs, the money went to the city government with the city not seeing a single penny of the massive fortune to try to make it more livable.

So crime continued to rise. Until Red Hood came into the scene with a bloody roar. In less than a year, he brutally took over unorganized crime and organized crime and became The Crime Lord of Gotham City. The Maroni and Falconi family were drastically reduced in their numbers by the time they finally bowed to Red Hood’s rule. 

Mia always managed to avoid meeting Hood. She never wanted to cross paths with him when he left bodies behind and almost no one could oppose him. Drug crime shifted, yes, leaving the women and children alone in the Bowery, but violence and murder still remains just as high among the men before Red Hood took over.

Ever since Commissioner Gordon and his family were found killed by murder-suicide in their apartment 7 years ago, the GCPD did almost nothing to try to arrest Red Hood because they were afraid of him. 

There were some that tried to arrest him before but they were sent back to the precinct in a duffel bag. In pieces. 

None tried again after and the new commissioner was too much of a coward to try.

So Gotham City had been suffering, like it missed out on an opportunity to have hope 15 years ago.

_Around the time when the Flying Graysons fell and their son, disappeared._

And here is Tiffany Drake, recently 18 years old, trying her best to make Gotham a little bit better by hemorrhaging greedy big corporations like LexCorp and anonymously distributing the money to various donations, projects, and shelters through a _ton_ of spoofs and fake IP addresses and framing other greedy Corps to create corporation war.

Mia looked at Tiff and saw the bags on her eyes, “Tiff, you’re still a growing girl, you need sleep.” 

“Sleep’s for the weak.” Tiff said before a jaw cracking yawn betrayed her, “Besides, now I need to stay awake and check where the wrackspurts are.” Geek-to-cyber vigilante translation: Find the invisible stalker.

With that, their conversation is put on pause because Mia’s name was called with her order. Both girls approached the red car and Mia held out her hand, “I’ll drive. You need sleep.”

Tiff gave her a mock glare, “I said sleep is for the weak.” but tossed her the key anyways.

Mia started the car and Tiff gulped down her coffee in one go and fell asleep within three blinks. 

On habit, she drove to her friend's safe house instead of her condo, taking a convoluted alternate route to avoid dangerous collisions or possibly her stalker. 

In the beginning, it was just some observation, she didn’t feel sharp nausea of immediate danger, just a low buzz of anxiety of eyes on her for several days.

Then it rapidly grew in strength to nausea whenever she approached her favorite spots. Tonight it was her dance studio. 

So instead of bringing the stalker to her house, she decided to go to her friend's safe house in Chinatown.

Tiff immediately woke up when Mia killed the engine in the parking garage and they both ascended to the top two floors of the apartment block. The second top is a livable space for short term. The top is marked as inaccessible due to structural damage but it was a ruse to hide the veritable computer setup Tiff had.

They went straight to the top floor, “How long has this stalker been following you?” Tiff asked, hoping on to a swivel chair and waking up the computer.

“About a week now. It’s only a few days ago that I got a sense that they are _really_ out to get me.” Mia answered, drinking her now mostly melted drink. She watched as the younger woman speedily brought up security cams, going into her Oracle mode completely. Occasionally she and Batwoman worked together when she felt that the red headed Dark Knight needed her help, but Oracle mostly works by herself.

There was a conversation that she had with Tiff a few months back, that almost everything is connected. Mia believes her, but the scope of it is something that is a little beyond her. She’s not a detective, she can’t connect tiny infinitesimal little clues to get the correct answer. Tiff swore that almost all of the cases- starting from the infamous death of Thomas and Martha Wayne, to the missing case of Richard Grayson, the death of Bruce Wayne and the sentencing and consequent death of the Butler, to and the case of the Gordon Massacre- everything was connected.

_“What’s the connection?” Mia asked._

_Tiff could only shake her head, “I don’t have direct proof, but there is a nursery rhyme that I suspect might not just be a children’s song after all.”_

_Mia frowned and sang it softly to herself,_

_**"Beware The Court of Owls, that watches all the time, ruling Gotham from a shadow perch, behind granite and lime. They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed, speak not a whispered word of them or they'll send The Talon for your head."** _

_Tiff nodded. Mia felt a low current of anxiety in her gut._

“I don’t see anything around you or within the 50 yards.” Tiff spoke softly as she sped up the camera footage to present day.

Mia felt a spike of anxiety that had nothing to do with her instincts but entirely to do with someone not believing her, “Not to say that there isn’t something out there. They could be exceptional at avoiding detection.” She finished and Mia relaxed.

Tiff looked at Mia and her eyes softened, “Get some rest. You have an early day at school tomorrow.” 

Mia snorted, “You should sleep some more. That 40 minute nap in the car is not enough.” 

“It’s good enough. Besides, _I_ got no school tomorrow.” Tiff sent her a smug grin.

Mia rolled her eyes, “Alright, fine. Talk to me about what you were working on while I steal some of your clothes to go to sleep.”

“I hacked into Lexcorp and found something suspicious on where the money was being diverted to…” Mia listened as she rummaged around in the next room, looking for Tiff’s loosest set of comfy clothing. She brought out a large black T-shirt with a picture of a red robin on the front. Well, large for Tiff.

It fit comfortably for Mia for being taller than the shorter and slender woman. “....-en I found some silent correspondence about a _Gateway_ , what that is, I don’t have a clue yet, but I will…” Mia then found the largest pair of gray sweatpants she could find which still showed her ankles and calf and was a little tight around her thighs but still comfy enough that she could sleep in it.

Mia bent down and easily touched her toes in the beginning of a stretch, “...needed to break through the next few firewalls, which was what I was trying to do last night, and found the beginning of a prototype to the Gateway. I will need to study the schematics to understand what it does….” She slowly separated her legs, sliding down into a split. When she laid completely flat on the ground, she sighed then brought her arm over to stretch it, “....was distracted by Batwoman needing help with the Red Hood. He has been particularly _brutal_ last night to early this morning.” 

Other arm, “After that, I had to help with my actual clients with their security programs. Honestly, _some people_...” Tiff continued to talk some more which devolved into just gossip about the drama that she caught some high class society got themselves caught into. All the while Tiff was rapidly clicking her way through the screens, changing the script to expand the search protocol.

Soon enough Mia finished her exercise and stood up from the floor. She walked past Tiff to ruffle her hair, ignoring her indignant squawk and a mutter of ‘stop doing that.’

“I’ll stop doing that when you stop looking like a baby faced kid.” Mia teased, heading to the couch to plop onto it.

“One of these days, I’ll stop looking like I’m 13 years old.” Tiff snarked, going back to being Oracle.

Mia closed her eyes and smiled. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.


	2. Talons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mia starts to break down when the stalkers won't leave her alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning, OC character death here and it's not Mia.

Mia’s phone alarm vibrated at 4 am and she groaned. She had the habit of sleeping with her phone under her body so she could wake up without anyone else waking up with her due to her ridiculously early days.

The things she does to keep living and trying to achieve her passion. 

She got up from the coach and sneaked past the sleeping Tiff, sleeping in an awkward position on the other couch with a small mountain of trash and cans of Monsters. She debated making coffee in the small kitchenette, but discarded the idea as soon as it formed. Tiff really does need to sleep some more.

Instead of making the coffee, she changed back into the previous day’s clothing. Finding a small yellow sticky note, she fished a pen from her purse and wrote down a quick message detailing where she’s going.

Grabbing her stuff and leaving the pajamas in a pile in the bathroom hamper, she sneaked her way out of the room and locked the door with a spare key. 

The city is quiet, just on the verge of waking up due to the early risers getting ready for their day. 

She looked at the time on her phone and decided that she had enough time to grab a cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich before she needed to rush to the bus stop to get to her morning class. 

She paid for her coffee and sandwich and exited, walking to the nearest bus stop. She sat down, enjoying this quiet, eerie stillness. The sky is still dark, it’ll be another half an hour at the least before the first hint of dawn shows itself.

There’s a shadow on the roof and it’s watching her.

She did nothing to indicate that she knew that there were eyes on her. At least not right away. 

She sipped on her coffee and browsed her phone, keeping the dimness level as low as possible as not to blind her to the world around her. 

The constant buzz in her gut, like a low level anxiety, tells her that the shadow is still watching her. She typed something on her phone, pretending to look something up but really, she texted Tiff. She really, _really_ hoped that Tiff is not heavily asleep that she would miss the text.

DancingLady: **Wrakspurt. Grey Dog loves donuts and coffee.**

_Stalker at the bus stop near the donut shop._

It was an incredibly tense 15 minutes as she waited for the bus to come. She finished her coffee by the time her phone silently alerted her to a new text on the screen as she continued to browse her phone but still keeping an ‘eye’ at the shadow that is definitely not a shadow.

Pretending to go to a different tab to look things up, she switched to the text messaging and felt herself pale and the coffee gone rancid in her stomach.

GeekyDragon: **Don’t show your panic, but that’s not a Wrackspurt.**  
GeekyDragon: **I’m pretty sure that’s a fucking Talon**  
GeekyDragon: **Hide ASAP, I’m sending Batwoman**

Tiffany must be panicking to not even bother using Harry Potter references or coding Batwoman’s name on text. Mia barely kept the shaking of her hands from showing when she continued to browse a couple more minutes. 

The shadow shifted closer and her hands twitched tighter around her phone. 

But the shadow didn’t do anything more than to stare at her, emotionless. 

“Oh? Damn. Class is canceled.” She murmured to herself just loud enough for the shadow to hear and got up from the bench. She walked in the different direction than Tiff’s safe house and made sure that her phone remained strictly on her person. She knows that Oracle is tracking her movements through the tracker on her phone ~~and possibly her clothing~~ and through the street and security cam.

She still felt eyes on her. Curiously blank.

She ducked into an alleyway and quickly hid inside a dumpster as soon as she felt eyes off of her. She gagged at the smell, but it was a tiny sacrifice to make sure she kept living.

The feeling of cold emotionless eyes roamed around the alleyway before heading forward quicker, passing the dumpster. 

She counted 2 minutes of her instinct being silent enough, that she knows that there is no one out there close by.

She silently hopped out of the dumpster and quickly marched to another alleyway, looking for any buildings that are open for her to sneak into.

Then her danger sense blared at the incoming danger. It was the same stalker that had followed her all week. The same one that made her sick to her stomach yesterday with how dangerous it is to her well being.

Without thinking, she ran to the manhole cover and lifted it with great difficulty. She slipped inside and with a tiny scraping sound, she recovered the manhole again and dropped down to the sewers. 

She held her breath, praying for the presence to overlook the manhole and _just leave._

Another tense 30 seconds and the presence dissolved.

Her instinct was finally quiet for now.

She stayed in the sewers instead of risking going out.

\---

“I don’t know why they’re actively going after you.” Oracle spoke as she looked at the vague picture of a figure in black with only a hint of a lighter color and a small amount of decoration among the black bodysuit. What color it is, it’s unknown due to the black and white night vision that the security camera had.

What was clear was the owl-like mask the figure had.

Oracle brought up another image of a different Talon, this one much more decorated, “This is the one that came after you disappeared into the manhole.” 

Mia was pale and shivering despite the warmth of the day gathering. Batwoman intercepted Mia in the sewers and dropped her off to one of Tiff’s much more discrete and heavily fortified safehouse to keep her inside.

“I think-” Mia’s voice cracked. She cleared it and gained a more steady cadence, “I think the first one was just surveillance, keeping an eye on me.”

Oracle turned to look at her, her mask neutral for a long second before it cracked into a more worried look. She looked back at the second Talon, “And this one was going to get you.” Through assassination or kidnapping, either option are really horrible to Mia.

Tiff broke through her Oracle persona and spoke, “I think you should stay here for now. It’s too dangerous out there and I don’t want to lose anyone else that I love.” she muttered the ending softly enough that Mia had to strain her ears to hear.

\---

Mia couldn’t stay hidden for too long, not if she wanted to complete her classes without failing grade and still be able to keep her job at the Gotham Library to help pay her half of the rent and pay for her ballet lessons.

It also didn’t help that Joshua was getting concerned with her extended absence, “Sorry Josh. Something came up that had me extremely busy for the last several days.” 

_”Not that I mind you taking off sometimes, but what’s going on?”_

She fiddled with her purse, noticing a stray string unwinding from her side bag, evidence of it’s age and wear and tear, “I’ll tell you in person, ‘kay?” She said instead, not liking the fact that she felt exposed in the bus and the constant buzz of anxiety-like instinct has been following her for almost 2 weeks now.

She could practically hear him frown, _”Please tell me that you are safe.”_

“Safe as I can be in Gotham. You better be safe yourself. Make sure that you don’t walk under a ladder at work.” She finished with a smile.

She heard a snort, _”I only walk under them about 50 times a day.”_ He said wryly, _”I gotta go. I’ll see you tonight.”_

“Later. Love you.” She finished, pressing the button to hang up. She sighed and leaned her head against the window of the bus taking her to work. She hoped that this situation resolved itself soon.

She doesn’t know if she could keep up with this before just outright running from her life she knew in Gotham. She really didn’t want to give up her education, her passion, her life she created here just because she was scared. She’s also tired since she was unable to sleep well due to feeling the danger constantly stalking her.

Suddenly she felt sick to her stomach, that sharp rush of adrenaline alerting her of imminent danger if she continued her direction to her ballet class.

She pulled the bus line and hopped out of the seat, not even waiting for the bus to stop completely before she rushed to the front.

She booked it the second the door opened much to the drivers confusion and didn’t stop running.

\---

She entered her apartment to see her boyfriend sleeping on the couch, the TV playing some sports program that she had no interest in.

She dumped her bag on the counter and Josh woke, “Mia?”

She must have looked terrible if he jumped from his couch and rushed to her with his face full of concern, “Mia, what’s going on?”

She sniffed, feeling tired, angry, and anxious, “I got a stalker. I never seen them, but they keep going to where I usually go.” She finished, leaning her face into his chest.

His dark arms wrapped around her, but tightened, “What?” 

“They keep waiting for me at my ballet class!” Her voice was muffled, but he heard her clearly.

“Do you have any idea of who they are?” He asked, rubbing her arms in comfort.

 _Yes._ “No. Not anyone I met at least.” She couldn’t tell him that they may be Talons. She really had no clue why they were after her. She’s just a simple woman trying to survive Gotham, not only survive, but live. She had no political goal or powers. She had no military training.

The only training she had before ballet was gymnastics when she was a little girl.

“Are they here, right now?” He asked and she looked at him in surprise. He saw the look and his look soften, “I _know_.” She felt shock that he knew but sighed, grateful that he never changed his attitude to indicate that she was a freak or anything like that.

She heard terrible things done to metas in Gotham. 

Mia’s just glad that her meta gene never manifested physically and she was glad that she’s not a telepath as well. She couldn’t imagine what it would have been like to hear voices in her head. With this, she could play off as paranoia.

Just, it’s not paranoia if someone was out to get her. She was never wrong that danger was near. 

“Are they nearby?” He asked again.

She closed her eyes and concentrated. Just the low buzz of general danger. Nothing sharp or specific. 

She shook her head.

“Then lets sit down and watch some mind numbing tv and we’ll go to bed. I got you.” He flashed her a smile and gently dragged her to the couch.

She sighed and snuggled up to him.

\---

The buzz of her phone in her pocket woke her up and she broke out into sweats. They’re here.

She scrambled for her phone and woke her boyfriend at the same time. She answered and covered her boyfriend’s mouth to mute him.

“Mia, get out.” Oracle barked, “Get out, they’re in the building, get out!” 

She rushed off the couch, dragging Josh. But stopped.

“ _No…_ ” She breathed, horrified to feel that all of her exits were blocked. They’re effectively trapped, “There’s no way out.” She whispered hoarsely and Josh tensed.

“Mia! Batmwoman is on her way, okay! Batwoman is on her way, stay hidden!” Oracle tightly reigned her panic.

Not knowing what to do, she dragged Josh to the closet and hunkered down. To her surprise, he reached to the top shelf of the closet and blindly rooted around for a box. She whispered to the phone, “Hiding.” 

A familiar click of a loaded gun and chills going down her spine but she felt a little more safe now that they have a weapon to protect themselves with.

He hunkered down with her, both holding their breath. Listening to the silence inside the apartment.

There was no noise. It was completely silent, no footstep, no breaking of windows or the creaking of the doors, but she can feel several bodies slowly converging to their little closet that was barely big enough to fit the both of them.

Josh shifted when she squeezed his arm in warning.

The door opened and immediately the black and gold owl-like feature of the mask snapped back, brain matter splattering to the wall behind them. Another Talon took the other’s place with no emotional reaction and reached out with its golden tipped claws and jerked back several times, having taken several bullets through the chest. But ultimately it didn’t slow it down and it reached for them again.

“SHOOT THE HEAD!” Mia shrieked and Josh shot the head.

Another Talon, this one much more decorated, bullrushed into the closet and knocked the gun out of Josh’s hand before he could line up a shot, knocking all three into the back of the closet.

A clawed hand wrapped around her neck as the other one grabbed Josh’s face and bashed his head to the closet wall, knocking his senses. The fight went out of Josh and he dazedly allowed himself to be dragged out of the closet by his arm.

Mia choked and tried desperately to get the claws to remove itself from her throat. She took a deep heaving breath when the Talon threw her to the ground in front of the two Talons that she swore were dead but they both simply pulled out a small golden dagger and held them to their throats. She coughed, still trying to get her breath back when it felt like her throat was damn near crushed. It was more difficult to breath when the claws dug into her hair, holding her head up to keep the dagger on her throat in a threat.

The lead Talon walked back towards the hallway where her cellphone laid and picked it up. Mia could hear the tiny voice of Oracle repeatedly calling out for her. The Talon cocked his head, and without another thought, crushed the phone in its hand.

Oracle’s voice stopped and Mia felt more alone now, more helpless than she ever had in her life.

Harsh breathing was the only sound in the apartment. 

Joshua groaned and bleary looked around. He saw the lead Talon and slurred through the concussion, “Wha’ do you wan’?” 

“Mia Rodriguez.” She tensed at the deep voice. The protective lens bared down on her like an owl ready to snatch a tiny little field mouse, “The Court of Owls has sentenced you to be captured.” 

“Wha’?” She trembled, utterly confused. She’s not going to die?

The Talon turned to Josh, “I sentenced you to die.” 

The Talon holding Josh slid the dagger across his neck and Mia went feral, screaming and sobbing. She struggled, not caring that there was a dagger at her neck. Unfortunately the Talon holding her moved the dagger out of the way quickly enough that she only suffered a relatively shallow cut in comparison to suffering the same fate as her boyfriend. The Talon let her boyfriend go and he could only helplessly cover his neck and gurgled. He was drowning in his own blood at the same time bleeding out.

She didn’t get to see him topple to the side as a sweet smelling rag was placed over her mouth and she knew no more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter done! I personally think that being dead is a better fate than what the Court of Owls has planned for her.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you guys loved it so far. And I hope you guys are faring well with the social isolation that that Coronavirus put us on.
> 
> Remember; kudos and comments are life giving essence for a fanfic writer.


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